Following
on from the examination of how the 'self' is created, this week we
looked at Dramaturgy. Simply put, this is the way in which life can
be seen as a 'game' or 'drama'. In another long
reading, Goffman argues that everybody 'performs' certain
roles in everyday life. We will adjust our performance to suit the
audience, time and place, cultivating the personality which is most
appropriate. In this way, we do not always reveal our true selves.
This idea of performance is put into words very nicely by none other
than William Shakespeare (1623), who wrote:
“All
the world’s a stage,
And
all the men and women merely
players;
They
have their exits and their entrances;
And
one man in his time plays many parts...”
(As
You Like It, Act 2 Scene 7)
Goffman
uses the idea of a front stage and backstage to explain the way in
which our performances change. An example of this was given in the
lecture (I found this one particularly helpful as I am a waitress
myself): Waitresses must perform a certain role while in the
restaurant – they must be polite to customers and be, as my boss
calls it, the “hostess with the mostess”. This would be seen as
the front stage. When the waitress goes out into the kitchen
(backstage) she can relax somewhat and for example, vent about rude
customers. I feel this backstage also allows us to maintain our front
stage persona, by giving us somewhere to release the parts of our
self which do not work with our front stage persona.
Another
example which I was quite interested in, is the way in which
celebrities handle these ideas of front stage and backstage. The
introduction of social networking sites, such as Twitter, create a
situation where the celebrity can somewhat escape their 'most' front
stage performance, which I think would be official events/interviews,
and instead allow fans to see another side of themselves which is
getting closer to the backstage. However, even their 'tweets' must be
staged. Alice Marwich and Danah Boyd argue that on Twiter “celebrity
practice involves presenting a seemingly authentic, intimate image of
self while meeting fan expectations and maintaining important
relationships” (2011, 140).
I
found Goffman's argument very interesting and the more I thought
about it the more I could see how it works in almost all
interactions. As was discussed last week, the social reality stops us
from having everything we feel and do on display to every person,
therefore allowing us to maintain specific relationships.
Goffman,
Erving. (1971), 'Performances',The Presentation of
Self in Everyday Life, Harmondsworth:
Penguin.
Marwick,
A and Boyd, Danah (2011), 'To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on
Twitter' Convergence: The International Journal of Research into
New Media Technologies, Sage,
Vol.17: 139, 19th
May.
